Impact of Civil Service Reforms on Labour Inspectorate in Kenya

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Abstract

The civil service is the machinery that governments rely on to design, formulate and implement their policies and programmes. Civil service reforms have been a common phenomenon around the globe, especially in developing countries. Civil service reforms in Kenya started in 1993. The reforms were aimed at containing the burgeoning wage bill, improving civil service productivity and efficiency. This study sought to analyze the impact of civil service reforms on labour inspectorates in Kenya. The study used data sourced from secondary materials published by the Kenya Government and employed evaluative methodology in undertaking the analysis. The study established that civil service reforms had a considerable negative impact on the labour inspectorates in Kenya. The effect is manifested in law and declining numbers of labour inspectorate staff, and the aging nature of the staff. Based on international benchmarks, the Kenyan labour inspectorate staff were found to be overburdened by up to 204 percent. The study also established that the Kenyan labour inspectorate is poorly resourced in terms of budgetary provisions, non-integrated and non-modernized. Overall, there is low prioritization and recognition of the role that labour inspectorates play in promoting economic growth, national development and attainment of Vision 2030 goals. This study calls for modernization of the labour inspectorate services. It also calls for integration of labour inspections so as to exploit existing synergy and limit on duplication of functions and inspection fatigue. At the same time, there is need for capacitation of the labour inspectorates through re-prioritization of Ministry's activities and funding levels, increase in staffing inclusive of undertaking of training and succession planning within the inspectorate.